Chapter 26: Dreamscape of Bizarre Spectacles
Lu Li did not reply, silently staring at him.
Hades leaned back behind the counter and waved his hand, "Don't look at me like that, you might need several shots to solve it."
"What are the real methods of an Exorcist?"
The Spirit-Calling Gun is just one of the methods, not the only one.
"You wouldn't want to know."
"I want to know."
"It won't do you any good."
"I think it would be very beneficial."
"...Come back when you bring 1000 Shillings."
The conversation ended rather unpleasantly, and it was clear that Hades did not want to tell Lu Li—whether he did not want him to get involved in murky waters, or for some other reason.
Upon leaving Hades's Detective Agency, Lu Li took a carriage back to Sailor Street.
Sailor Street was entering the busiest time of the day as the seamen finished their breakfast and headed to the harbor.
At Mrs. Phelin's bakery, he bought two pieces of white bread, gave one to the children gathered outside the bakery, and finished the other with some hot water, then called Oliver.
"Hey, boss."
"Asina Leslie, formerly employed by Madam Anne's Art Gallery, is deceased. Send all her details over by this afternoon. Focus on her personality and the cause of her death."
"Okay."
After arranging these, Lu Li took off his coat, hung it over the back of a chair, rolled up his sleeves, and walked into the kitchen.
Soon, the sound of running water started, continued for a while, then stopped. A few seconds later, a water-streaked Lu Li emerged from the kitchen, wiping his face with a towel.
Returning to his desk chair, Lu Li lay down on the desktop.
Seconds ticked by, and the figure on the desk gradually stabilized, and the Detective Agency returned to its cold and lonely state.
The sleeping experience this time was not pleasant. Lu Li felt his consciousness sinking, penetrating the floor, the soil, and the rocks.
The surrounding water vapor grew heavier, clinging to his consciousness, making it heavier, pulling it downward.
He did not know how long it had been when the increasingly hard rocks around him gave way, replaced by the eerily silent and desolate depths of the sea.
Faintly, there seemed to be a light overhead, but as his consciousness plunged into the vast abyss, that glint of light grew farther and farther away until it was blocked by the immeasurably deep seawater.
Light could not penetrate the depths of the deep sea; an unbearable pressure squeezed from all sides, but it did not intensify.
Lu Li thought he would keep sinking until he lightly landed in the sea-bed mud and perhaps see relics covered in seaweed in the perpetual gloom.
But a change occurred.
The seawater enveloping him suddenly turned into bizarre and myriad colors, shifting and mixing as if layers of paint were blending and twisting together.
This scene was certainly not what one would find in the abyss; it was more like... it had been intercepted by some indescribable entity.
Lu Li's consciousness could not think, only quietly observe and watch.
The oddly mixing colors may have been chance or fate, forming a door.
An ordinary, old wooden door.
The colors continued to shift, causing the door's form to change every moment—metal doors, ornately carved grand doors, fence gates, bronze doors...
But without exception, each door had a key inserted into its keyhole.
Thud, thud, thud—
A familiar knocking sound suddenly resonated deep in his consciousness.
The observing consciousness suddenly conceived the ability to think in that moment and discerned the source of the sound.
[Is someone knocking?]
The instant this thought was born, an irresistible force emerged from an unknown distance above his head. It pulled at Lu Li's consciousness, dragging him with a speed that nearly twisted the surroundings, towards it.
In that instant, Lu Li saw only a dazzling white light filling his vision, and then...
Bang!
Subconsciously standing up, Lu Li bumped into the chair, which fell backward with a moderate crash.
Like a fish stranded on the shore, Lu Li gasped hurriedly for a few breaths, then suppressed it with his willpower, his indifferent dark eyes lifting toward the door.
...
Click—
The door opened a crack.
Oliver looked up at Lu Li and shrank his neck, "Boss, you don't seem to have rested well..."
A bloodshot rim appeared around Lu Li's dark pupils.
"Mhm."
Lu Li turned back and sat down at his desk, massaging between his eyebrows.
The clock now showed it was already afternoon.
"This is the information I found." Oliver handed a few pieces of leather paper to Lu Li.
Lu Li took them, his gaze landing on them.
Lu Li recognized each character, but when strung together into words and sentences, he suddenly couldn't understand their meaning.
The problem was not with the content but with Lu Li himself.
He still felt tired, the bizarre dream he had just had did not relieve his weariness, but rather intensified it.
Perplexed, Oliver saw Lu Li temporarily set aside the leather paper and stood up to walk to the kitchen.
The sound of running water continued for a long time, and when Lu Li came back out, he was wiping his wet black hair.
He finally seemed somewhat rejuvenated, not as wooden as before.
Sitting back down at his desk, Lu Li slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air and picked up the leather paper again, the content finally familiar and not foreign.
Asina Leslie, living close to the industrial area in Blackwater District, worked as a textile worker for a long period before working in the gallery and met Bill Eddy there, the man who impregnated her.
From acquaintance to romance, they quickly moved in together until Asina became pregnant.
The textile factory was unsuitable for a pregnant woman to stay, so Asina quit her job and found a new job with Bill's help: working in the gallery.
The job was relaxed and the salary was about the same as her textile job, Asina cherished her new job and often stayed at the gallery beyond her working hours.
Things were meant to continue blissfully.
But one day, Bill Eddy suddenly disappeared. No one saw where he went, and the Police Station only narrowed it down to near the Abandoned Asylum in the suburbs.
Just over ten days later, Bill Eddy came back, acting as usual.
Then came the tragedy on the seventh day after his return, Bill Eddy crazily attacked Asina, cutting out their child, an act that directly killed Asina and their unborn child, who was less than seven months old.
That was all the content on the leather paper.
"So, Asina was murdered?" Lu Li massaged his temples, putting the paper back.
"Very likely."
"Bill Eddy?"
"Missing. My brother told me the Police Station's been looking for him, but no sign of him."
"How did the Police Station classify this case?"
"They said it was the work of cultists, that Bill Eddy had joined them, but what exactly they think internally, I'm not sure."
Lu Li found it hard to think and instead asked, "Are you busy now?"
"Uh... not really," Oliver answered subconsciously.
Lu Li nodded and leaned into his chair.
"You can stay here, or go out and take care of your business, but remember to wake me up before five o'clock in the afternoon."
Chapter 27: Twenty-seven. The first collaboration
At 4:57 p.m., the door to the Detective Agency was knocked upon.
Oliver's clock was three minutes fast.
Lu Li was roused from sleep, his eyes, as if coated with a layer of mist, gradually cleared, turning into a deep spring.
This time, he did not fall back into that bizarre and chaotic dreamscape, yet he also could not remember what he had dreamed.
After washing up, he walked to Oliver, who was waiting outside the door, and before leaving, Lu Li took a top hat from the coat rack, then closed the door behind him.
Click—
The door shut, and the dim Detective Agency returned to silence.
...
"Roasted chestnuts for sale, get your chestnuts!"
"Freshly caught eels, 4 shillings a pound—"
"Give me back my hair tie!"
Cries of vendors echoed through the bustling Sailor Street as children ran and played noisily. The fishy scent wafted through the air, emanating from the sailors who had returned from sea or from the fish they brought back.
"Are you coming with me?"
Lu Li tilted his head slightly, asking Oliver who was following alongside.
"No, I'm turning left up ahead," Oliver pointed to the corner ahead and said.
At the corner, Oliver said goodbye and slipped away. Lu Li watched him leave, donned his top hat, and merged into the throngs of people.
...
"Exorcist sir, do you need me to close the gallery now?"
Upon entering the office on the second floor of the gallery, Lu Li was greeted warmly by Benjamin.
The bare bookshelves and the desk as clean as new confirmed that last night's events were no illusion. Lu Li suddenly remembered that he hadn't informed Benjamin about the situation in the office before he left this morning.
But seeing Benjamin's unconcerned demeanor now, Lu Li decided not to bring it up.
"Let's wait until the normal business hours are over," Lu Li answered.
"Uh..."
Benjamin showed a look of embarrassment: "There are no customers in the gallery at the moment."
The gallery eventually closed at exactly 6 p.m. when the business hours ended. The employees left one by one, with Benjamin being the last to depart.
Lu Li stood by the door, watching Benjamin leave and didn't turn back to the gallery. Instead, he descended the steps, walked to the back of the gallery, and came to a window below the second floor.
This was the window of the second-floor office where Lu Li had left the ghost baby the night before, but there was no trace on the ground.
Convinced that it was unlikely for the ghost baby to appear here, Lu Li returned to the gallery's main entrance, took down the 'Open' sign from the door, and locked it.
The sky began to darken, though there was still some time before it would be completely dark. Lu Li lit the oil lamp, placed the wind guard on, and quietly waited for night to fall.
The gallery corridor grew darker and blurrier, becoming invisible. Half an hour later, only a small circle of light from the oil lamp remained around Lu Li.
Whoosh—
A strange scraping noise arose from the depths of the corridor, resounding as it approached.
The sculpture came to life.
Lu Li stood up, picked up the oil lamp, and walked past the desk toward the depths of the long corridor.
After walking about ten meters, he saw a sculpture moving towards him on the corridor.
"Good evening," Lu Li greeted, "I need your help."
Without waiting for the sculpture to reply, Lu Li picked up the sculpture and headed toward the stairs leading to the second floor.
"I know you can hear and think. I need your help to stand guard by the stairway and watch for Asina; you should know her. If she comes out of the rest room, come and tell me," Lu Li said while placing the sculpture at the stairway and looking into its lifeless stony eyes, "If you don't wish to, feel free to leave."
He stepped back a few paces, turned, and walked away. Seconds passed, and no sound of stone scraping against the floor could be heard from behind.
He had succeeded.
As he passed by Anna's portrait, the girl in the painting remained frozen, showing no signs of coming to life.
Lu Li withdrew his gaze and continued forward.
At that moment, however, a pair of somewhat translucent hands reached out from behind Lu Li's head and covered his eyes.
"Guess who?" came a crisp laugh like that of an oriole from behind him.
Lu Li stopped walking, but it was a tad too late—the semi-transparent hands blocking his view couldn't react in time and pressed into Lu Li's head through his eye sockets, frantically trying to retract.
"Anna," Lu Li said.
"Oh c'mon, you could at least pretend to guess wrong for once."
With a pout, Anna let her hands drop and floated in front of Lu Li, puffing her cheeks into a dumpling face.
"...?" Confusion flickered in Lu Li's dark pupils. Was he supposed to intentionally guess the wrong name in this game of guessing who?
Quickly setting aside his confusion, Lu Li regained his composure and said, "Can you sense the presence of other ghosts?"
"If they're not deliberately hiding their aura, yes," Anna nodded.
"Good, I need your help," Lu Li said with a slight nod.
...
"I feel it... It's there!"
Outside the gallery wall, Lu Li held up an oil lamp high above his head.
Anna floated nearby, exclaiming in surprise.
They were searching for something—or rather, a ghost—beneath the wall.
Lu Li looked up, following Anna's direction toward a branch a few meters off the ground and spotted a hanging umbilical cord.
Raising his arm even higher, a Ghost Baby appeared within the light of the oil lamp, suspended from the tree.
Its umbilical cord was wrapped around the branch. Sensing the light from the oil lamp, the Ghost Baby began to struggle and wave its limbs.
Lu Li turned to Anna beside him and pointed up at the tree, "Bring down that Ghost Baby."
"Umm... It looks so strange, is this a human infant?" Anna floated up to the branch, complaining with her mouth, but undid the umbilical cord without any disgust and lowered the Ghost Baby in front of Lu Li.
Lu Li extended his hands, taking the Ghost Baby into his arms despite Anna's puzzlement.
Not fully developed, its hands and feet, still joined together at the joints, clung to Lu Li's arms. Its mouth split open, revealing a full set of sharp teeth—but it did not scream or bite.
It was simply smiling in delight at the sight of its own kind, despite being unable to make a sound with its underdeveloped vocal cords.
If it had been just yesterday, Lu Li would not have been so daring. However, after encountering ghosts like Anna and the statues that did not attack humans and could communicate, Lu Li's attitude had shifted.
Ghosts were once living people, so why couldn't they possess humanity?
Looking down at the Ghost Baby, the spirit that was less than seven months along was not fully developed, its many layers of wrinkles covered with a layer of fine down, and its face resembling more the snout of an animal, making it look like the young of some evil spirit.
Indeed, that was the case.
Lu Li reached out to touch its eyelid and discovered that it could see. Its five fingers, like those of a frog, were connected by a layer of thin, transparent membrane as it reached to grab Lu Li's fingers.
Lu Li looked away and glanced at Anna, whose expression had grown increasingly odd, and then headed back to the main entrance of the gallery.
After locking the door, Lu Li took off his coat to wrap the Ghost Baby and placed it beside the oil lamp on the desk.
He looked up at Anna, whose expression was growing ever more peculiar, and she was about to speak but hesitated, "What are you trying to say?"
"Is it your child?"
"No."
"Then why did you bring it back with you...?"
"It's Asina's child."
"...?"
"It can soothe Asina's resentment."
"So the question is, why are you doing all this?"
Lu Li fell silent for a moment, then looked deep into Anna's eyes and said.
"Because I am an Exorcist."
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
5 Power
stone 
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